Born in 1944 Istanbul, Turkey. Graduated from Vefa High School, Fatih, Istanbul.

Early life

Kemal Sunal graduated from Vefa Lisesi (Vefa High School). In his early ages he started pursuing what was to become a long and successful acting career in minor roles in theatres. For a brief period he worked in the Kenterler Theatre and took part in his first play Zoraki Takip. He was later transferred to the Devekuşu Kabare Theatre where he performed his acting.

Career

By 1973 he was recognized as a true talent and started receiving offers for films with larger budgets and more famous casts. His first film was Tatlı Dillim by Ertem Eğilmez. In a matter of years Sunal was co-starring with other actors from the old school such as Halit Akçatepe Şener Şen and Münir Özkul.
Perhaps the most famous of all his parts was "İnek Şaban". The simpleminded artless and innocent member of Hababam Sınıfı (The Outrageous Class) was a good laugh for many. İnek Şaban was constantly bullied and humiliated by his friends but this never kept him from thinking the unthinkable like digging a tunnel to escape school grounds (which later turned out to lead to the vice-principals office) or smoking in the school attic. The character was so pure and so fixed in the memories of the Turkish people it was never replaced by another actor in the recent re-shootings of Hababam Sinifi most probably as a sign of respect to Sunal.
His other notable characters include: Tosun Pasha a fake pasha; Süt Kardeş Şaban a dumb sailor; Çöpçüler Kralı a foolish garbage man who fell in love with a municipality officers fiancee; Doktor Civanım a former hospital janitor pretending to be a doctor upon his return to his home village; and finally "Orta Direk Şaban" a naive man trying to become an athlete to impress his crush.
Apart from the hilariousness of his movies one of the reasons that they were so popular were because they addressed many of the problems faced by the urban poor in Turkey during the 1970s and 1980s. In almost all of his films Kemal Sunal plays a poor man trying to make something of himself.
Sunals last film was Propaganda which was directed by director Sinan Çetin. Sunal played a customs officer-in-charge (presumably) on the Syrian border. Being a drama this film was a contrast to his other works. As the plot unfolded Sunals character fell into despair trying to survive the dilemma between his duties as an officer of the law and his duties as a friend. In public opinion this film was not the best of jubilees for the master. In fact it had not been meant to be a jubilee at all. Another significant fact about this film is that it also included Ali Sunal Kemal Sunals son cast as a junior customs officer.